Congratulations to Nikita Zubarev on His Successful Dissertation Defence for the Degree of Candidate of Political Sciences

Research Assistant at the Laboratory for Comparative Social Research defended his candidate dissertation on the topic “Affective Sources of Trust in the President of Russia”.

Nikita Zubarev, a research assistant at the Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, successfully defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Political Sciences. Here is what he shared about his work and future professional plans.

About the dissertation 

"People do not always act rationally in politics when evaluating political directions or the quality of incumbents’ work. My dissertation is an attempt to contribute to the research on political support using the example of the presidency – the study was conducted using panel survey data collected in Russia. My work highlights several factors that explain political attitudes through emotional reactions, group belonging, and value orientations. Such factors include the level of subjective well-being (happiness), national pride, and emancipative values."

About future plans 

"I plan to continue combining teaching and research work, but I want to focus more on the latter – I’m interested in mastering new statistical methods. The team at the Laboratory for Comparative Social Rsearch, as well as our regular seminars and conferences, continuously inspire me to reach new heights. In the coming months, I plan to work on articles that develop the ideas outlined in my dissertation, as well as new research questions for me. For example, the contribution of value orientations to cross-cultural differences in attitudes toward the death penalty. I consider publishing in a high-ranking international peer-reviewed scientific journal as the next important milestone in my career!"

We congratulate Nikita and his academic advisor Eduard Ponarin on the successful defense and wish them further professional success!